• 13 April 2009

The Luxembourg Gardens are one of my favorite places to visit in Paris. With or without children it's an interesting and fun place to be. For the kids there are pony rides, a carrousel, a large playground, and many more diversions. For adults, there are chess games, people watching, beautiful grounds to enjoy, and plenty of places to sit down and enjoy dessert :) I am also fairly certain Garance Dore and The Sartorialist hit Luxembourg Gardens for style watching...the backdrops of some of their images are awfully familiar...

I stopped at Gerard Mulot to purchase quiche for breakfast the next day ,and of course couldn't resist their amazing selection of patisseries. Do you blame me? I bought three--each of which they placed in a little pink box. I love how the French package everything so lovely--even the metro tickets you purchase are presented in a glassine envelope.

I decided three desserts might not be enough so when we spotted Pierre Hermes, Cher and I had to pop in there as well. I wish I'd taken a picture of their exterior windows--they are scrumptious. Truly :) After much deliberation, I decided to go with the Emotion Satine because it featured my favorite ingredient--passion fruit. Think passion-fruit gelee, layered with mandarin orange compote, and topped with whipped, lightly-sweetened cream cheese. I never did figure out what the little brown squares were sprinkled atop as my limited French does not include such vocabulary :) It doesn't matter though...they were delicious!

Take note the neighborhood around Luxembourg Gardens and Saint Sulpice is a wonderful area of Paris. Besides Pierre Hermes and Gerard Mulot, make sure you visit Souleiado, Noa Noa, Muji and Comptoir de Famille. While we drove there, you can easily access this area by Metro (Saint-Sulpice stop). Most shops are closed on Sunday in Paris (and sometimes the smaller ones on Monday too) so make sure you explore this neighborhood Tuesday through Saturday.

Thanks for reminding me of such lovely memories of when I studied in Paris many years ago. I loved getting up early and jogging through the Luxembourg Gardens with U2 playing on my big chunky yellow Walkman, then stopping to watch people doing tai chi. So many great nooks and crannies and statues to explore there.